Watch: WIPR’s D&I virtual conference
“Diversity matters because it is about fairness. Everybody should be treated equally, everybody should have an equal chance. It’s also good for business.”
Tim Moss, chief executive officer of the UK Intellectual Property Office, underscored the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in driving innovation and creativity during his opening keynote speech of WIPR’s inaugural Diversity in IP Conference.
In his keynote, Moss expanded upon the critical need to feature more diverse voices in IP.
“We serve the whole of society and IP is a global issue, so there must be fairness and equality for all at the heart of our sector. IP isn’t a technical specialism; it is about innovation and creativity. As organisations involved in IP, we should be as fair and inclusive as we possibly can,” he explained.
Over the course of two days, WIPR’s inaugural Diversity in IP conference explored many issues affecting D&I progress throughout the legal sector, featuring insights from IBM, GSK, Mondelēz International, Arbor Biotechnologies, Lumen Technologies, Anaqua and more.
View the agenda here.
Moving the needle
The conference presented an excellent gathering of in-house IP counsel who, along with their private practice counterparts, offered updates on the latest thinking on how to best promote and progress D&I.
We examined the status of women and minorities working in IP, and how corporations and outside counsel can work with law firms to move the needle on DEI.
Nicole Spence, senior attorney, IP Law, cloud & cognitive applications brand team, IBM, called for strategic measures to tackle the problem of minorities’ underrepresentation in IP.
“There has been progress but there hasn’t been a significant change. In terms of representation, we are not at the point where the amount of minority IP attorneys directly correlates to the wider population. We are just not there yet,” she explained.
According to Spence, the dearth of information around D&I has been a big stumbling block.
“D&I targets are only effective if we have the data behind those targets and I think that is something that has been missing in the conversation around D&I so far,” said Spencer.
“Targets only work if people are very transparent about their D&I goals, and are open if they are not meeting them. I think in the past, we have not taken this seriously enough.”
New opportunities
We also heard about the challenges faced by boutique law firms trying to hit diversity targets set by their clients. Lisa Mueller, partner at Casimir Jones, described how her firm was leading the way in creating a patent training academy and internship scheme aimed at addressing this issue.
“We have started an eight-week paid internship programme for diverse individuals who have a scientific background, and who may be interested in a career in patent law. We’ve tried to cast the net for these individuals pretty broadly,” she explained.
“In designing the programme we wanted to give these individuals a range of experience in patent litigation and prosecution related tasks under the supervision of a patent agent or attorney, so they can see if patent law is a career path for them.”
Comprehension brings acceptance
The conference also explored how to support the many ways people express, experience, and identify their gender and sexual orientation in the workplace, and how to deal with deep-rooted prejudice.
Civil rights activist and transgender IP lawyer DJ Healey called for much greater attention to be focussed on the ‘t’ in LGBTQ in law firms and for the legal sector to avoid treating this community as a monolith.
“This approach promotes a lack of understanding because the ‘t’ and ‘q’ stand for people who have a gender identity which is different from what most people are born with. Lumping us all together under the LGBTQ+ umbrella causes confusion, misperceptions. It hurts comprehension, and with comprehension comes acceptance,” she explained.
If you want to hear and discover more, register here to see what is on the agenda and join us:
These sessions are free to view following registration.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
Today’s top stories
